Bag-cleaner.



E. L. BUSCHMAN.

BAG CLEANER.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 21, 1910.

Patented Sept. 10, 1912.

KMW 'v wz it EDWARD L. BUSCHMAN, F,EAST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY.

BAG-CLEANER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 10, 1912.

Application filed July 21, 1910. Serial No. 573,082.

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD L. BUsoH- MAN, a citizen of the United States, residing in East Orange, Essex county, State of New J ersev, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Bag-Cleaners, of which the following is such a full, clear, and exact description as will enable any one skilled in the art to which it apperta-ins to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying, drawings, forming art of this specification.

ll y invention relates to; a machine for cleaning bags made of fabrics or textile materials after the same have been used in order to clean them for refilling and sub sequent use. For example, in the use of bags for ordinary cement, a great deal of the material works into the fabric of the bag and remains there after the bag has been emptied'and laid aside. It is desirable to remove this material from the empty bag in order to have a practically clean bag for refilling and subsequent use, at the same time not to mutilate the bag in cleaning it.

The objects of my invention are to provide a simple and eflicient form of machine for the above described purpose and to these ends my invention consists in the various novel and peculiar arrangements and combinations of the several different oarts of the machine, all as hereinafter ully set forth and then pointed out in the claims.

I have illustrated a type of my invention in the accompanying drawings, wherein;

Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal sectional "iew of my improved bag cleaner. Fig. 2 is a vertical cross sectional view of the apparatus shown in Fig. 1, the plane of the section being at right angles to that in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a side view on a smaller scale than the other figures, of myimproved machine in which the drum is inclined instead of being horizontal.

Referring to the drawings, in which like numbers of reference designate like parts throughout, 1 is a suitable casing or housing within which is mounted a horizontal rotatable drum 2, the respective ends of which are provided at the centers with tubular trunnions 3 and 4, respectively, which are mounted to turn in the respective bearings 5 and 6, which are mounted on the casing 1. This drum 2 is formed with numerous peripheral openings or perforations 7 in the form of longitudinally extending slits and through which the dirt passes from the interior of the drum. to the exterior and falls into the casing 1 where it accumulates in ,conveyer 9 is suitably driven through means of a pulley 12, a belt 13 and pulley 14 on the drive-shaft 15, which is actuated b a belt 16 which coiiperates with the fast and loose pulleys 17 and 18.

One end of the drum 2 is provided with a suitable opening 19 into which the bags are introduced to the inside of the drum. A chute 20 in the side of the casing 1 receives the bags which are to be cleaned and presents them to the opening 19 in the end of the rotatable drum and the bags fall through the opening into the drum when it is presented to the chute in the rotation of the drum. The interior of the drum is provided on its periphery with longitudinally extending spiral vanes or ribs 21 which extend parallel with each other and the ends of which are provided with laterally projecting flanges 22, the spiral trend of the ribs or vanes 21 being such that when a bag is dropped into the drum through the opening 19 and falls to the lower part thereof, the ribs will tend to carry the bag toward the other end of the drum which is provided at its lower half with an arc-shaped discharge opening 28 from which the bags are discharged into a chute 24 and dropped upon a conveyer belt 25 which carries them away to a desired point.

A rotatable shaft 26 is mounted in the tubular trunnions 3 and 4 of the drum and is provided with a pulley 27 driven b a belt 28 which passes over a larger pulley :29 on the drive-shaft 15. The drum 2 is rotated in the same direction as the shaft, through means of a large band pulley 30 fixed on the trunnion 4C, a belt 31 and a band wheel 32 fixed on the shaft 15. By means of this gearing, the shaft 26 is driven at a high rate of speed while the drum rotates comparatively slowly. This shaft 26 is provided with radial beater arms 33 which are designed to strike the bags as the same fall from the ribs or vanes 21 when carried up by the movement of the drum and thus the bags are thrown back and forth between the ribs or vanes 21 and the beater arms of the shaft at the same time they have a movement toward the end of the drum in which the discharge opening 28 is located. The beater arms do not extend fully to the end of the shaft where the feed or supply opening 19 is located, but in place of the beaters at this point I use an inwardly tapering cone '34 onto which the bags fall from the feed opening 19 and by means of which theyare conveyed away from such opening so as not to be thrown back into the same, the conical surface acting to perform this function.

In Fig. 3, I show the casing and drum as inclined in order to facilitate the bag working by gravity out ofthe drum. In this view, which is somewhat diagrammatic, the rotatable casing is indicated at 1 and is supported on suitable frame-work 40, 41. The shaft 26 is driven by means of pulley 27, belt 28, pulley 29 from the shaft 15. The drum is rotated by means of the band wheel 30, the belt 31, pulley 32 and the shaft 15.

In the operation of the machine, the bags to be cleaned are introduced through the chute 20' and pass through the opening 19 into the interior of the drum where they fall upon the cone 34 on the shaft. This cone serves to move the bags inwardly along the shaft to keep them away from the opening 19 in the rotating drum. As the bags fall to the bottom of thedrum, they are carried upwardly by the vanes and the flanges thereon until a high point is reached. As the bags gravitate or fall from the vanes, they are caught by the beater arms and the dirt is thereby knocked from them. The

r bags falling again to the bottom of the rotating drum are again carried upwardly by the vanes thereon until they are dropped on the beater arms, and this operation is repeated until the bags are carried to the other end of the drum from where they are introduced and then finally discharged from the drum. The dirt and foreign matter which is thus beaten from the bags falls through the openings in the periphery of the drum and accumulates in the bottom of the casing from where it is conveyed by means of the conveyer.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patcut is 1. In a bag cleaning machine, the combination of a rotatable horizontally arranged drum provided upon the interior with means for beating or knocking the bags introduced therein, one end of said drum being provided with an opening throu h which the bags are introduced into the rum and the other end of the drum being provided near the periphery thereof with an unobstructed are shaped opening having its center of curvature substantially coincident with the axis of rotation of the drum and of substantially a uniform width, a casing in which said drum rotates, and a discharge chute located at one end of said casing at the bottom thereof and with which said arc-shaped opening in the drum registers during part of each complete revolution of said drum, substantially as described.

2. In a bag cleaner, the combination with a. drum provided upon its interior with means for heating or knocking the bags to clean them, one end of said drum being provided with an opening for introducing the bags therein, and an inwardly tapering or inclined member located within the drum near said bag-receiving opening and acting to move the bags away from said opening as thesame are introduced within the drum.

3. In a bag cleaner, the combination with a drum provided upon its interior with means for beating or knocking the bags to clean them, one end of said drum provided with an opening for introducing the bags therein, a rotatable shaft within said drum and provided with a cone shaped or inwardly inclined member near said ba receiving opening and-acting to move the ags away from said opening as the same are introduced within the drum.

4. A bag cleaner, comprising the combination of a horizontal rotatable drum pro.

vided upon its interior with inwardly extending projections, a rotatable shaft extending through said drum and provided with beater arms, an opening in one end of said drum through which the bags are fed to the drum, an inwardly tapering cone on said shaft within the drum and adjacent said feed opening, and means for rotating said drum and shaft.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

EDWARD L. BUSOHMAN. Witnesses:

ROBERT F. HENRY,

VVILLIs FOWLER. 

